


A Hundred Cycles

by GammaCavy



Series: A Hundred Cycles [1]
Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: 100 year cycle, 400 years is long time, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chain!Oz, Gen, POV Outsider, Present Tense, Reborn Gil, Reincarnation, immortal Oz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-21 03:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3675471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GammaCavy/pseuds/GammaCavy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chains are immortal and humans are reborn. When Gil lies dying, Oz takes drastic measures to ensure that he can find his friend again. AU after Retrace 94.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Death

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Forever](https://archiveofourown.org/works/614512) by [HumanizedSerenity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HumanizedSerenity/pseuds/HumanizedSerenity). 
  * Inspired by [The Start of Something New](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2020119) by [sheepsan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheepsan/pseuds/sheepsan). 



Blood fills his mouth and he can tell he won’t live much longer, but Oz is safe. Oz is alive and that’s what matters. Not even Baskerville healing could save him now. At least he’s dying having saved his master, though. Oz will live, and that’s all that matters.

“Gil,” Oz says and there are tears in it, as his master’s face comes into his vision, “Why did you do that? Why get in the way? You stupid idiot! That wasn’t aimed at you!”

He remembers. He remembers Jabberwock’s fire and Raven’s fire clashing, and Leo struggling for control and screaming at the Chain and the Baskervilles to stop it, stop it, stop it, even as Glen controlled him and egged them on. He remembers Lottie pointing at Oz’s unprotected back and screeching at her Chain to destroy B-rabbit, now! He remembers Oz’s scythe tearing through Cards and other low-level chains as they swarmed, and he remembers realizing that Oz wouldn’t be able to turn in time. He remembered the Chain’s impact, cracking a rib, and the jaws closing on his neck. He remembered Oz turning as he fell, and screaming.

He remembered his master’s face becoming hard, and dozens of bladed chains rising at his command, tearing through Baskervilles and Chains and dragging Jabberwock to earth. He remembers Oz stalking forwards, the ground cracking and turning to sand, and he remembers Lottie’s body disintegrating into dust as Oz decapitated her. He remembers watching Oz, and thinking that he was magnificent, and wondering how he had ever thought that this angel of death could have needed his protection, as blades aimed at him disintegrate three feet away from his body, and the shadow of a rabbit looms large behind him. He remembers the scythe growing, and striking at Jabberwock, and he remembers Jabberwock’s howl of pain as it died. He remembers Leo falling, Glen’s possession fading with the death of his Chain, and he remembers Oz standing in the ruin he caused, looking somehow all the more brilliant for the destruction surrounding him.

Tears were falling on his face now as his master continued, “Idiot, I would have survived it! Don’t you dare die on me Gil! Don’t you dare!”

He attempted a smile for Oz. The last view he has before he dies will be of his master, and that’s the way it should be. “Sorry, Oz.” he coughs, feeling the broken rib move, and another surge of pain from that. “I can’t obey that order.”

His master’s face hardens, and the scythe reappears. Oz runs a hand along the blade and it comes away bleeding. He brings the bloody hand to Gil’s mouth. What’s he trying to do? A contract couldn’t save him, and Oz knows that. But master is insistent, so Gil obediently drinks the offered blood. A rush of power surges into him for a moment, wild alien power that feels strongly of _Oz._

His master smiles. _I have you, Gil_. The words are more felt than heard, and he realizes Oz’s mouth isn’t moving. That wild power wraps around everything that makes him _Gil,_ seeming to almost _taste_ him, and then releases him again. _I promise, next time I’ll protect you._

Gilbert Raven Nightray dies.


	2. Gil

Alan was seven years old when his younger sister read a book that explained that fish could breathe under water with their gills, and decided that since he swam like a fish he must have gills, and should be called that. Alan doesn’t understand five year old logic, but the name made little Alice smile, so he put up with it.

 

* * *

When he is nine he sees a blond, a few years older than him in the woods near their house. The boy says his name is Oz, and Alan introduces himself, and then added “but everyone calls me Gill.”

“Gill, hunh?” Oz smiles, looking like he’s remembering something. “I think it suits you.”

The two become friends, and Gill, as he has begun to think of himself, wonders why that smile makes him feel happy and sad at the same time.

 

* * *

It’s winter and the snow is deep and he worries about Oz, who seems to sleep in the forest, but his father refuses to let him out of the house, saying that it’s his job to take care of Alice,  since his parents have better things to do than coddle a sickly girl. The one night he does escape he doesn’t see Oz, but gets lost in the forest ( _so different in the snowy moonlight than the green-gold paradise he knows like the back of his hand_ ). He falls asleep, even though he knows he shouldn’t, and after dreams of something large and warm and furry at his side, he wakes covered in a warm blanket.

A black rabbit leads him home.

 

* * *

When spring comes Alice has recovered, and Oz is waiting. Gill tells him about his adventure in winter, and Oz smiles, and warns him to not do that again. “After all, the forest guardian can’t always keep you safe.”

“Forest guardian?”

“Yes,” Oz looks sad for a moment, then continues “It’s a giant rabbit, black as night, wearing red coat dyed in the blood of its enemies, eyes of fire, and carrying a crimson scythe when it appears in anger or defense of this wood, or the people in the village it protects. It’s said to have two other shapes, one a normal rabbit, and another unknown, but anyone who’s seen those is long dead.” 

“Do you think the rabbit that led me home was the guardian?” Gill asks, because Oz seems, to his nine year old perception, to know everything.

Oz gets that look on his face and answers “I’m sure it was, Gill.”

The story of the guardian remains in the back of his mind for months.

 

* * *

Gill is eleven when Oz declares that he isn’t spelling his name right, and says he ought to spell it with one L instead of two. Oz then begins to tell him a story about a boy with that name and another one named Oz, and a friendship that stretched beyond time. He returns to Oz’s clearing every day to hear more of it.

 

* * *

Gil is twelve when he begins to wonder why Oz won’t come to the house, and why they always meet in that clearing, but puts it out of his mind when Oz tugs at his hand and drags him off to show him one of his places in the woods. ( _He can never find them unless Oz is there, even when he has the way Oz takes them memorized._ )

 

* * *

Gil is thirteen when he becomes an older brother twice over. The new baby has one red eye and one gold, and their mother’s blond hair, like their sister (so unlike Gil’s messy black, or Oz’s gold), and no one can think of a name that fits. _Vincent_ something deep within him whispers, and he suggests that name.

They name the baby Vincent.

 

* * *

Gil is fourteen and beginning to wonder why Oz hasn’t changed since the day he first met him, but somehow it feels so right that Oz would look like that, that he doesn’t ask, and just enjoys the time in their clearing. But he begins to wonder, what is Oz? The other boy is so ephemeral and bright and pure that he seems too perfect to be human. Plus, he doesn’t seem to have a house. Gil’s asked around, but nobody else has ever seen him. And he doesn’t age. He briefly wonders if Oz might be the guardian, then dismisses the thought. Oz said, and tales agreed, that the guardian was a rabbit. Oh well, Oz is Oz, whatever he is, and Gil is glad to know him.

 

* * *

Gil is fifteen when the nightmares come. Oz is in them and that is the one bright spot, and he thinks they are dreams of the story Oz told him when he was eleven. There is a loud girl named Alice in them as well, and he wonders why his sister now makes him sad. Vincent is in the dreams, older and damaged. Gil swears he won’t let anything happen to his little brother, and tells no one about the dreams, save Oz.

When the nightmares end Oz lay dying, at Gil’s hand, at the command of a sad boy. He thought _this isn’t the story after all; the Oz in the story didn’t die._

 

* * *

Gil is sixteen when his father (a distant, cold man,) is murdered. His mother forbids him from going into the woods. Gil goes anyway, as dusk falls, and tells Oz about it. Oz’s face hardens in a way he’s never seen before ( _yes he has_ ), but it’s achingly familiar somehow. He tells Oz that his mother has forbidden him the woods. Oz smiles sadly, and tells him, “I’ll wait until you can come again.” Then he points at the ground and firmly exclaims, “Make sure you do come again!”

He finds himself relying unthinkingly “Yes, master Oz!” Oz looks heartrendingly sad.

 

* * *

Gil is sixteen when a group of toughs come to the village, demanding food and fire and his brother’s death. They make camp in his clearing, and say that they will come for Vincent in the morning. When after the second day they haven’t come, someone dares the forest, and returns with the news that they are all dead.

_‘Twere the guardian that got them_ , the people mutter, and cast uneasy looks at the woods. Gil remembers sun, and Oz speaking the story, and snow and a blanket and a rabbit. His mother redoubles her ban on entering the woods. Gil ignores it, worried for Oz.

Gil returns to the forest, and is greeted by Oz’s relieved smile. Oz says he didn’t know anything, and Gil is too relieved that Oz is all right to wonder why Oz had that sad look on his face again.

 

* * *

His mother hits him when he returns. She beats him when he comes back ( _notHome_ , _neverHome_ ) from the forest ( _HomewasOzOzOz_ ). She blames all their troubles on Vincent, saying that everything had been perfect until he was born with that cursed eye. Gil rarely dares the forest after he came back to find her beating Vince. While the younger boy had recovered, it was close.

_It’s all happening again,_ whispers something inside him. And Oz comes nearer the village than he ever had and tells Gil not to come to their forest if the joy of coming would be followed by grief for Vincent.

 

* * *

Gil is seventeen, and his mother is dead. Alice is away visiting their uncle, so she is safe from the murderers, a pack of men their father had been friends with, but they want little Vincent, and a treasure they think father had. While they bash in cupboards in search of the treasure, and scour the house for Vincent, uttering hoarse words of death, and misfortune, Gil takes Vince in his arms, hushes him, and slips out the window, making for the forest.

He hasn’t taken this road in a year and the moonlight makes everything strange but he knows the forest path by heart. Left at the gnarled tree, right at the polished rock, straight past the hollow tree, along the stream to the large pointed rock, and then follow the point to the clearing.

The moonlight makes everything strange, and he remembers the last time he came to the forest at night. It isn’t winter, but this has the same feeling as that long-ago night. He hopes the forest guardian will protect them, and if it doesn’t then he would rather die near Oz. Perhaps his friend ( _seemingly omniscient when it comes to Gil in the woods,)_ will show him a place to hide _._ And if he doesn’t come than Gil hopes his last sight could be Oz’s face. _Again_ , whispers that deep knowledge.

The men follow and Gil realizes that this isn’t enough, as a blade is raised over him, then there comes a flash of steel, and with a hiss and rattle the man who had been standing over him is pinned to a tree by a bladed chain. A shadowed figure stands in the clearing ahead, _(their clearing, Oz’s clearing),_ and as chains strike two more of the mob and hover in defense behind him, Gil runs on into the clearing. Was this the guardian of the forest? Or could it be—

But the guardian’s hair is silver in the moonlight, not gold, and as the mob of men gather their courage and rush forward, a scythe appears in the figure’s hands.

At the sight of the scythe Gil remembers at last.

Surrounded by blood and death, holding a crimson scythe the guardian, _(B-Rabbit, Oz, master, sun, light of the world, friend_ ) smiles at him, even as he cuts down the leader of the mob, and a bladed chain impales the last man standing.

“Oz?” he croaks, still in shock over the influx of memories and the happening of the night.

“It’s all right Gil.” The scythe vanishes, as do the chains. Cold comfort, given that he had seen them called so easily, and he would be wary, except this was _Oz_ , and even if he hadn’t remembered anything, he knew he would have trusted him anyway, because this was _Oz._ "You're safe."


	3. Oz: The Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gil's death, and Oz waiting and searching for his best friend's soul throughout 400 years.

Gil is dying. Gil isn’t supposed to die. They’ve almost won. _Why_ did the idiot have to take the blow? Oz was a Chain, he'd have been fine after a day, but _stupid stupid_ Gil had shielded him and was dying for it.

"Don’t you dare die Gil" he orders, even knowing it’s useless.

Gil confirms his fear. He can’t lose Gil. His hopeless idiot belongs to him. He’s already lost _rejected sent away will never see_ his Alice. He can’t lose Gil too. And even though he knows Gil will return in a hundred cycles it would be impossible to find him. Nothing even guarantees that anything of _his_ Gil would be left. —But maybe there was a way.

He summons his scythe, and unhesitatingly cuts his hand. With a contract —even a short one— the rules would change.

He offers his blood to Gil, and feels his servant’s tongue lick the cut. The contract is made, and he grasps Gil in his power, _(gently, so gently)_ his full power far too much for even a Baskerville. But this is _Gil_. He controls himself.

He wraps himself around Gil, the small fraction of his power that the human could handle, and lets himself taste Gil’s soul. The moment seems to last an eternity. Gil is like a fire in his grip, one that won’t burn him, and so small and fragile in comparison to Oz, but stubborn and strong, even wounded and dying as he is, with a broken rib puncturing a lung, and a crushed throat, only alive this long because of Baskerville healing. He feels Gil's shock and fear, swamped in his power as Gil is, power no human could hope to contain or control he knows, _and how much of Jack’s fall was his own fault_?

He smiles _. I have you_ ; he soothes the bright, fierce devoted warmth that is Gil, embracing him more firmly. _I’ll protect you next time_.

Gil flickers out, the soul escaping his grasp and Oz tucks the memory of that moment close to his heart until they meet again.

 

* * *

The first time he finds the soul again Gil is female, and Oz would tease him so much, except Gil doesn’t remember him. Gil isn’t fully happy, but by the time Oz finds Gil, Gil is content, married and a mother. There is no place for Oz there. Gil has a good life. Oz stays anyway, and watches from the shadows. Gil dies young and of disease as she begins to remember something of him. It’s agony to watch, but disease is no enemy Oz can fight. He watches over Gil’s children until they’re grown. Then he leaves again.

The second time Gil dies at ten, victim of an accident, as he began to remember Oz. Oz was too late, and finds him as he dies again.

The third time Gil is female and noble and Oz becomes her knight. She dies in an ambush, remembering him at the end, and Oz grimly realizes the pattern he sees. He feels cold satisfaction as her killers fall to dust before his power. Nobody hurts what’s his. He brings her body back to her family and vanishes from the human world, waiting once more.

The fourth time Gil is male again and this time looks just like he did when he was _Oz_ ’s Gil, and Oz allows himself to hope that this time will be different.


	4. Oz: Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the fourth lifetime from Oz's POV

Gil finds him. He always found Gil, but he’s sitting in what’s come to be called his forest by the locals, and Gil comes crashing through the brush and teeters on the bank of the stream.

“Need a hand?” Oz asks, giddy because it’s _Gil_ , seaweed hair and golden eyes and all, his Gil just like Oz knew him, here again!

Gil accepts it, and soon Oz is showing him all around his forest, all the good hiding places, the good trees, his favorite bushes, and a clearing he has called his since he found a small shrine to the rabbit guardian of the forest there. Gil says his name is Alan but he’s called Gil, and Oz doesn’t even ask how that happened because of course Gil is Gil! Gil is so very Gil-ish that Oz can never think of Gil by any other name.

 

* * *

Oz stays. Gil comes to his forest every day, and they play like they used to. Gil is happy, and Oz is happy, except for one thing. Gil doesn’t remember him. Gil has no reason to suspect that Oz is anything other than human, and while Oz suspects that if he told Gil about his own nature Gil would remember, he will not tell. Gil is happy, and who is Oz to tear this peace from him? Just a stuffed bunny turned real, a Chain who is somewhat human, the slayer of Jabberwock, strongest in the Abyss, and that means nothing in the face of Gil’s friendship and happiness. He will not fail this time.

 

* * *

Gil comes to his clearing in the winter night, and falls asleep in the snow. Idiot. Oz covers him with a red and white blanket that used to be B-rabbit’s coat until he repurposed it to several more practical things, and stays the night by his side, warm and furry, then shrinks from a rabbit the size of a large dog to his small rabbit shape, and leads him out of the forest. Size-shifting is useful.

 

* * *

Oz tells his legend to Gil and hides his sorrow at the fact that he had to in a gruesome embellishment of the sort he had always done when he was telling stories to Gil. He locks away the regret as he says that anyone who’d seen his third shape _(preferred shape, human shape)_ was long dead. Time claimed them all one by one, save for the one whose side he stood by now. That one had died second after all. Oz promises himself that this time he will fulfil his duty as a lord to protect Gil. Last time he hadn’t been willing to use his powers and Gil died as a result. Not this time. This time he will fight with everything that he is. This time will be different.

 

* * *

He tells Gil their story, pretending that that’s all it is, and waits to see if it will nudge Gil’s memories, but nothing happens. Oz doesn’t know if he’s relived or disappointed. He hopes he’s wrong about why Gil dies.

 

* * *

Gil tells him about his newborn little brother Vincent, and Oz knows that this is his last chance. Things are coming together again, and if Gil doesn’t remember him this lifetime, he never will. But Gil is so pleased to be an older brother and Oz can’t deny the joy being able to see the years he’s always missed at last. Something about Gil’s statement that it had been his idea to name the baby Vincent tells Oz that his friend is still in there though, and that this time _will_ be the one. _He refuses to believe otherwise._

 

* * *

They almost look the same age now, and Gil tells him about nightmares he has. Nightmares that remind him of the stories Oz told him, and Oz knows that the time is coming. Joy and apprehension mix. He has come to love this Gil as well, because he is still Gil, and he has the irrational fear that remembering will destroy something precious. Gil’s happiness. Gil’s life. Whenever Gil remembers he dies. But he squashes the fear and allows himself to hope, while becoming ever more wary. He will not let anything happen to Gil this time.

 

* * *

Gil comes to the forest and says that his father was murdered. Oz follows him home, unseen, a small black rabbit, and watches over Gil more closely. He’d told Gil that he would wait until the other boy could come again, but when Gil had responded by calling him master, just like he used to that very first time, Oz made his decision. If he’s right and Gil remembering triggers his death, he had better not let Gil out of his sight for a moment.

 

* * *

A band of thugs come to the small village, demanding Vincent’s death as they camp in his forest, his and Gil’s clearing, and Oz will not put up with that. He might not have been exactly fond of Vincent before, but it’s silly to continue to hold a grudge over the fact that the boy’s previous incarnation had once cut his ears off when he was a stuffed toy. Alice had made Gil mend him, and everything had been all right. Besides if anything happens to Vincent it will hurt Gil, and he can’t let the last tie he has to his human life be sad. Gil was his best friend, almost his brother, and Vincent belonged to Gil, so Oz would protect his servant’s property.

He lures the thugs after him, letting his eyes shine red, and they chase what they believe to be a Child of Misfortune until he has them a nice distance from his clearing, unwilling to sully the place that is precious to him and Gil with their filthy blood. He doesn’t even use his scythe. His chains are more than enough for this bunch.

Gil would be safe this time. Oz would make sure of it.

 

* * *

He watches as a man from the village comes into his forest and finds the bodies. He makes them fall to dust, and shadows the man back to the edge of the forest. He has to get his amusement somehow, after all. Besides, from the edge of the wood he can make sure Gil is all right.

 

* * *

Gil still hasn’t figured out that A: Oz isn’t human, and B: Oz is the forest guardian. Sometimes Oz wonders about his servant’s intelligence. Even though he knows Gil is an idiot, he occasionally has to reconfirm the fact. Apparently Gil is destined to be an idiot forever. Gil came to see if he was safe, and while it means a lot, he would think that Gil would have figured out by now that Oz can take care of himself.

 

* * *

He follows Gil again. Gil’s mother hits him and screams at him for visiting the forest. Oz makes a decision.

 

* * *

Telling Gil to stay away hurts, Oz thinks as he watches Gil leave his clearing for what might be the last time. Their friendship might bring Gil some joy, but Oz watches from the shadows and sees the grief it brings. He remains content to watch from a distance, guiding and helping as he can, without bringing anymore pain to Gil. His servant has suffered more than enough because Oz is selfish.

 

* * *

He bolts upright out of his hammock. Gil is coming. Gil is close and afraid. Oz moves. He darts through his forest with ease and speed. Even in human shape, there’s a reason the phrase is ‘run like a rabbit’ and he does so. From what he can feel of where Gil is, Gil’s going for the clearing. The sounds of branches cracking and rough cursing reach his sensitive ears. Gil is being chased. Oz summons his power as he lands in the clearing. Even if Gil fears him after this Gil will live. Last time he didn’t use his powers and Gil died.

Not this time.

Gil is down, a small bundle clutched to him ( _Vincent?)_ Oz wonders briefly, then all thought falls out of his mind as he sees the blade descending towards Gil’s head. Faster than a thought his chains shoot out, impaling the man and saving Gil, and striking at the others, keeping them from reaching Gil. No one hurts his servant except him.

Gil safe behind him, he acts. The men rush forward, hoping to overwhelm him, and his scythe appears in his hands. Blood falls and bodies splatter before him, and he remembers the first time as Gil lay dying, and the ruin he brought to Gil’s killers. To this day, there are no Baskervilles.

Death is in his hands and in his steps, and these aren’t Baskervilles or contractors, merely men. His chains strike and strike and he swings his scythe, and as he spins to kill the last man at close range and strikes down the one trying to flee, he sees Gil staring at him, not in horror, but —Awe maybe? He doesn’t know. He smiles at Gil anyway as he brings down the scythe, ending the last threat to _his_ Gil.

“Oz?” Gil croaks, and Oz realizes what he looks like, bloodstained, surrounded by bladed chains hovering around him like flying snakes, bloodstained scythe in his hands, and Gil can’t fail to realize what he is now. Even Gil isn’t that idiotic.

“It’s all right, Gil.” He lets his weapons vanish, regretting that he can’t do anything about the blood, and comes towards Gil. Gil backs up a step and Oz stops, sitting down. “You’re safe.” He sniffs the air and notices a red glow in the sky in the direction of Gil’s house. “But I think your home’s burning down.”

Gil gets an inscrutable look on his face that Oz remembers and his heart leaps, because only _his_ Gil had ever had that expression! “You have a lot of explaining to do, master.”

Gil remembers him! Gil really remembers! He can barely contain the grin as he answers, “In the morning.” The bundle _is_ Vincent, and Oz leads them to one of his nests, and keeps a watch as they sleep. He has not failed this time. Perhaps in the morning he can convince Gil to remake the contract with him.


	5. Epilogue: Aftermath, A new Journey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gil and Oz return to the village where Gil was born and Oz is worshiped, only to leave it behind, as they set out to tie up some loose ends. Andrew, an age-mate of Gil's who admires him, is boggled. And Oz is a tyrant.

Andrew had always admired Gil. The other boy played in the haunted forest, chose his own name, and was always sooo strong in the face of the strange looks he got for his different features, especially his yellow eyes. As he grew though, Andrew blended in with the other children his age, shunning the different one while secretly admiring him still.

Sometimes he would work up the nerve to try to talk to Gil, but then when he approached him his mouth would go dry and he couldn’t manage much after “Hi.”

Gil was always polite when he answered, but there was never anything to follow the greeting.

The only time he manages to say something other than “hi,” is after the outsiders who had come to hurt Gil’s little brother are found dead by the guardian’s hand.

“You know the old stories; do you think they’re real and the guardian got those people? Have you ever seen the guardian? You’ve been to the forest a lot.” He shuts up abruptly, realizing he was babbling.

“I’ve never seen the guardian… but one winter night… I saw something… I think there really is one.”

“Aren’t you scared of the deep forest, after what happened to those men?”

Yellow eyes grow distant. “No.”

Andrew gulps, watching Gil leave. That had been a strange conversation. And had he always been so _tall?_

 

* * *

He realizes he wished he could have been friends with Gil when Gil’s home burns down, a year after that conversation. Everyone, except for the small children, had streamed to the fire to put it out before it spread, and as he stares at the glowing embers, he abruptly realizes that this means that Gil and his brother are probably dead, since no one had seen them. He wonders if anyone knows how to find their sister, and tell her about this so she won’t come back to it.

 

* * *

He is in the apple orchard, picking fruit high in a tree before it can be blown off in the oncoming storm, when he hears voices from the forest. As he turns, he loses his grip on an apple in surprise. It thuds softly against the ground, and he continues to stare at the trees, and the moving _thing_ in the treetops.

The first thing he sees is the ears, and it takes him a moment to realize what they are. Then it hits him like lighting. _Rabbit ears._ The tops of rabbit ears, and then the creature’s head emerges from the edge of the trees, and it is with amazement and fear that he realizes that _this is the forest guardian_ and just clings to the branches, staring at the giant rabbit he used to think was a story.

“Hey Andy, don’t just sit there day…” Eustace’s voice trails off and Andrew guesses he just spotted the giant rabbit. “That’s… the guardian… isn’t it?”

It’s not really a question. He nods anyway.

“What’s that next to it?”

Huh. Next to it? He looks again, and almost falls out of the apple tree. There is a figure walking by the rabbit’s side, and it’s a familiar one. “Gil?”

“Is that him, or his ghost?” Eustace asks next to him.

“…It’s wearing a coat.” Andrew realizes. “The stories never mentioned that.” The figures pause. Gil reaches up as the rabbit crouches, then Gil carefully lifts something off its back. Was that his little brother? Was the guardian letting someone _ride_?

“They’re alive!” Andrew doesn’t know which of them said it.

Gil looks up, as if he heard the exclamation.

Muttering breaks out as Andrew climbs down, and he realizes that another five or six people have gathered by now.

“Our apologies for intrusions upon your forest, Great One.” Patrick the Infuriating says. What’s he doing in the apple orchard? “The lowlifes of this town simply don’t listen to reasonable people about your privacy.” He looks at Gil.

 **“I know. I dealt with them. They attacked my friend.”** The earth practically shakes when the creature speaks, and Andrew can feel his teeth rattle. And as the being said friend, it had looked at Gil.

Andrew is speaking before he realizes he is saying it aloud, “Gil! I thought you said you’d never seen the guardian! And you’re friends?”

“I didn’t know I knew him,” he shifts the sleeping child uncomfortably.

How could Gil not know he knows the Guardian? It’s a giant rabbit and they act like they’ve known each other forever, but how can he have known the guardian forever without noticing that it’s a rabbit? That shouldn’t be an easy thing to miss.

Patrick (the Infuriating) ignores them. Andrew is ashamed to be related to him. “Great One, will you honor our home with your presence? There are many more worthy people—”

The rabbit seems to grow. **“You insult my servant?”** the words are a deep growl. Patrick the Infuriating steps back. The guardian rears up, and Andrew cowers with the rest. **“Gil is my chosen servant and friend, and— ”**

“Oz!” Gil interrupts, “you’ll wake him!” What is he thinking? Interrupting and scolding the guardian? Even if it likes him—

The giant rabbit looks sheepish. **“Sorry.”** With an audible thud, the forepaws land on the ground again.

Gil might not have known if the guardian was real, but that apparently hadn’t kept them from becoming close friends, Andrew realizes. And what Gil had said— is the guardian’s name Oz?

“Come on. We need to make arrangements for tonight,” Having said that, Gil began to walk toward the cluster of buildings. The guardian— Oz?—pads after him. After a moment of staring, Andrew and the others follow, apple harvest done.

“Arrangements for tonight?” Andrew asks, before he can think.

 **“It’s going to rain, so he needs a roof,”** the guardian answers. Andrew jumps. The creature laughs.

 

* * *

As they reach the edge of the orchard, Gil stops. “Um, Oz.”

 **“Yeah?”** the giant rabbit looks down at him fondly. Oz? So that _was_ it’s? his? name. And now that Andrew thought about it, there was a definite he-ness to the rabbit.

“You said you’d stay with us, but you’re…” Gil trails off.

 **“Too big?”** Oz finishes. **“That’s not a problem. Trust me.”** He crouches. “ **Gil. Get on.”**

Did he just get smaller? Andrew wonders.

The answer is yes. The guardian had shrunk. So when he had seemed to grow after Patrick the Infuriating angered him, he had probably actually grown.

“But I’m just—”

 **“My friend,”** the rabbit growls.

“No. It’s not right, you are—”

“Get on or I’ll pick you up.”

Gil pales and scrambles on awkwardly, juggling his sleeping brother, and looking like he’s remembering something terrible. 

Andrew hears startled murmuring behind them. He’s surprised himself. What _i_ s the guardian doing?

 **“You all,”** Oz is slowly growing again, **“get out of the way. Gil, hang on.”**

“Why? What are you doiiiiiiiiing?!” the words trail off into a yell as Andrew and the rest scramble out of the way. Oz had abruptly grown. And grown. And grown. Wasn’t the problem that he was too big? How in the guardian’s name— oops— was this supposed to help?

He realizes he’d said some of that aloud when the guardian answered. **“Watch.”** Above, Gil says something, but Andrew can’t make it out.

 **“Is he?”** an ear twitches. The guardian leans down again, eyeing him speculatively. There is another yelp from Gil as the rabbit lowers his head. Andrew glimpses frantic motion where Gil sits before the great head lifts, the motions stop and there is another sheepish, **“Sorry Gil.”**

He’s bigger than the four biggest houses in town together! Wait… is that it?

A paw lifts, and Andrew realizes that it looks kind of like a hand, as Oz simply _steps over_ the buildings.

Then the other paw follows it. Then Andrew realizes where the guardian is carefully pacing, and takes off at a dead run for the main square. The rest follow.

As he arrives, panting, everyone who hadn’t had orchard duty is either scrambling out or already standing around the edges of the square gawking, and Oz is shrinking once again, while apparently arguing with Gil.

 **“I was careful!”** he protests. **“I made sure not to step on anything and I didn’t hurt anyone.”**

Gil says something loudly. Oz’s ears flatten. **“I** did **warn you!”**

Gil’s response is somewhat clearer, but Andrew still can’t tell what he was saying. Oz is now only half as large as he had been, but still bigger than when Andrew had seen his ears above the trees.

“I’m not!”

Gil’s answer is loud, almost clear, and something about growing up.

“Hey! I have so! And stop shouting in my ear. Weren’t you the one worried about waking your brother?”

Silence. Andrew sees the ears cautiously lift. Gil is plainly visible now, and Andrew doesn’t have to crane his head back as far to see him.

“—well if you’d behave in a reasonable fashion I wouldn’t have to.”

 **“I’m perfectly reasonable,”** the rabbit answers.

Andrew is once again stunned.

Oz crouches, and Gil carefully climbs down, then reaches up for his brother. Once again holding the child, he and Oz look at each other, and then the great rabbit says, **“Go on. Arrange for that roof. Then come get me. I don’t want to get smaller yet.”**

Gil nods. Andrew remembers to shut his mouth. Patrick the non-infuriating innkeeper, respected person, and unfortunate uncle to Patrick the Infuriating, and Andrew, speaks up. “I have room. There’s deer on the spit, and I guarantee peace during the night,” here he casts a warning glance over the crowd of onlookers, focusing on Patrick the Infuriating.

Gil nods again.

“Thank you.”

The rain begins to fall.

 

* * *

A few minutes later, everyone has invaded the dining room at the inn, with the shrunken guardian and Gil occupying the place of honor closest to the fire. Andrew had barely made it near the front of the crowd, and everyone is bombarding them with questions. Andrew can only make out some of them:

“How’d you get away?”

“What happened?”

“How long have you known the guardian?”

“Why didn’t you come back sooner?”

“What are you going to do now?”

“How’d you meet the guardian?”

Gil ignores these questions, eating in a way that suggests that, one: he is very glad for the food, and two: he expects someone to snatch it away at any moment.

 **“He almost fell in the stream and I helped him,”** the black rabbit the size of a cat answers, from where he is sprawled over Gil’s shoulders, giving anyone who considered sitting next to Gil on the bench second thoughts. **“And I’ve known him for thirty four years.”**

Silence falls, except for the storm outside. Puzzled looks abound, even on Gil himself. The only ones who don’t seem puzzled are the rabbit and Gil’s younger brother, ( _what was his name_ ) who continues to eat as if he too were afraid someone would steal the food.

“But he’s only seventeen,” ventures Patrick the Infuriating, after a moment.

**“I know. And he’s known me for fifteen years. We met when he was nine.”**

More silence follows the guardian’s words.

Andrew wonders if for all its power, the great rabbit counted time differently.

“Oz, what—”

At that point his brother’s face falls to the table with a thunk.

 **“It looks like someone needs to go to bed,”** the guardian says cheerfully.

He wonders if there were ever a time it wasn’t cheerful. It seems nice. Then he remembers the feel of the forest, and shudders. Between that and the death of those who trespass there, is this kindness a mask? It doesn’t feel like one. Still… he speaks up. “We believed that you would kill any who trespassed in your woods. Were we mistaken?”

The great rabbit leaps down from Gil’s shoulders, growing as it does, and it’s a rabbit the size of a medium sized dog that lands on the bench.

“It takes more than trespassing to make me kill. I kill those who would harm what is mine.”

Gil had stood during the guardian’s answer, scooped up his brother, and now stood leaning awkwardly against the wall.

Thunder cracks outside.

The rabbit moves to Gil’s side. Then it focuses glowing red eyes back at Patrick the innkeeper. **“Beds? My servant needs sleep, too.”**

“Beds, right. Uh, this way.” Patrick complies.

 

* * *

Gil relaxes once they are alone, and his memories stop conflicting on how he should react. Alone with Oz and Vincent, _(and how had that happened that they were still brothers?)_ he was simply Gil, Oz’s servant and friend. Upon their return he’d found his fresher memories conflicting with his new-old memories, and the awkwardness of it had made him freeze in a way he hadn’t since he met Oz the first time. And then there was what Oz had said. He pulls the blanket over the sleeping Vincent and turns back to Oz, who had stretched back into human shape once the door was shut. “Oz?”

“Yeah?”

“What did you mean, thirty four years? Even with this cycle and the last, it would only come to fourteen years.”

And Oz smiles at him, but there is an undercurrent of sorrow in his green eyes, belying the light tone as he answers, “Silly Gil. Do you really think this is the first time you’ve come back and I found you? The cycle has turned four times since then.”

Gil feels so many questions well up at that, questions like ‘why don’t I remember those lives’, and ‘why do I remember being me now’ and most importantly, ‘did I remember then, or were you alone?’ but he doesn’t ask any of them. He can’t, not when Oz is looking at him like that, and there is a gleam in his eyes that Gil knows from Before, from when Xai took him away after saying those awful things, and Oscar brought them back together, but something in Oz had broken. Gil thinks about how long those four hundred years must have been, and shudders. 

 

* * *

Andrew wakes to the smell of cooking. For a moment he wonders why he’s waking to the smell of Uncle Patrick’s cooking, and then yesterday comes flooding back to him.

As he grabs some of yesterday’s bread, Patrick the innkeeper looks at him. “Are you going back to the orchard?”

Andrew shakes his head. “Can I stay and help?”

“All right. Just make yourself useful.” Patrick says, giving him this look.

“I could go ask what they want for breakfast?” he means to offer but it comes out as a question, and Uncle Patrick the Innkeeper sighs.

“I said be useful. Pestering the guests is not useful, and the boy at least looked tired. Help me chop things for the lunch stew.”

When uncle says something in that tone Andrew knows better than to argue.

 

* * *

An hour later everyone in the village who doesn’t have to be elsewhere, like the baker and the farmers, has arrived in the dining room and are all clearly waiting for Gil and the guardian to appear.

After another hour no one is even bothering to pretend they aren’t waiting for the guardian anymore, and it’s getting awkward, when Andrew catches sight of Patrick(the Infuriating) sneaking up the stairs. Patrick (the innkeeper ) notices as well, and tells Patrick the infuriating to come down and not pester the guardian and his friend.

Patrick the Infuriating retorts that they’ve been up there forever. Others join in on his side, and most of the rest side with Uncle Patrick that they shouldn’t bother the guardian and his servant. Andrew stays out of it, and fetches two buckets of water from the rain barrel. As Uncle Patrick grabs his namesake by the collar, Andrew takes aim, and throws the water over the two Patricks, and everyone near them. As they stop he aims the second bucket at the ones who weren’t in range of his first splash, and pauses. Who’s that? There isn’t anyone that age that’s blond. And beside him—

Andrew sets down the bucket very carefully, and Uncle Patrick notices Gil standing there, once again carrying his brother. But who’s that with him?

His hair’s a strange kind of straw color that isn’t like the usual yellow, more in-between straw and dandelion petals, and Andrew’s never seen anything like it before. Andrew’s never seen him before either. Who is he?

Gil is eyeing them all with strange look when the stranger elbows him. He winces and asks for breakfast. As Uncle Patrick gets it, the strange boy claims a table for them, and the crowd draws back.

“Gil!” the stranger points at the bench imperiously and Gil hurries over to sit there .The stranger’s grin is terrifying, and so is his aura. And Gil acts like this is familiar, a routine, and as if the strange boy told him to pick up one of his sister’s three terrifying cats, he would. Given his sister’s cats, the terrors of the village, Dinah especially known to scare Gil, this means a lot.

And why did something about the stranger seem familiar? Not that Andrew has ever seen him before, but it’s like he’s heard about someone who looks like that once.

“Andrew!” Uncle Patrick calls, and the thought vanishes. He scampers over to help with the food, and is glad to notice Patrick the Infuriating slink, dripping, out the door. “You take care of this for a bit.” Uncle says, then leaves Andrew wondering what to do as Uncle Patrick heads for his rooms. 

Andrew takes the trays and serves Gil, his brother, and the stranger, and carefully doesn’t pester them, remembering what Uncle Patrick said about pestering.

The rest, however, will pester, he thinks. He stands by his second bucket of water. It will probably be needed.

Edgar, the second loudest person in the village, (the first is Patrick the Infuriating); looks like he means to approach the table and demand attention, notices Andrew with his bucket, and backs off.

The straw haired stranger grins appreciatively, with a thoughtful gleam in his eyes. Gil shudders visibly while eating. His little brother doesn’t seem to notice anything and keeps eating like they had last night, as if they expect the food to be stolen at any moment.

“Thank you for chasing him off.” The stranger says. “I wish I’d thought of water. It would have been so much help when certain people argued,” his grin reappears, and this close Andrew can see why Gil had shuddered. There’s something, sly, conniving and terrifying in it. “Don’t you think so Gil?” the question is singsong, and Gil shudders again. Andrew sees Patrick the Innkeeper return as the youth continues more seriously. “This is good. I always did like what you and your uncle left for me. Thanks.”

Silence slams down, as loud as last night’s thunder. What did he say? What does he mean?

Wait. Andrew finally remembers what had been niggling at his thoughts earlier. Three years ago, Gil had asked if anyone knew… a boy who had strange yellow hair, looked about fifteen, a _nd was named Oz!_

And there was a thing. Leave food out for the guardian, otherwise supplies go missing. This way you could control what food went missing. But it was mostly a tribute thing, especially with the few who hunted Forests Edge. Andrew had helped Uncle Patrick the Innkeeper prepare for the once a month offerings.

“You’re—”

There is again that smile.

“Oz, what do you mean?” Gil asks and Andrew feels his stomach sink through the floor. He’d been right. This _is_ the guardian. This is _terrifying_.

He can tell others are making the same connection now that Gil has said the name Oz. And this explains how Gil didn’t know he knew the guardian, if he knew him as a human until… recently?

The guardian, who apparently doesn’t _have_ to look like a rabbit, explains to Gil. Andrew misses most of it, but is paying attention again in time to hear Gil mutter something about how it never occurred to him to wonder what Oz ate.

Oz laughs. “I don’t need to, anymore, but I like to.”

The whole room seems brighter when he laughs. It gives Andrew courage to stutter, “Mr. Oz, Sir, Guardian Sir…I’m sorry if … If I’ve ever offended you. I never meant to. I didn’t know you were….” He trails off helplessly as sounds of startled realization and agreement echo through the crowd. He heard someone mutter about ‘..the infuriating not included…’Was that Eustace?

Gil looks astonished.

“Real?” finishes Oz.

Andrew’s stomach falls through the floor again.

“Oz! That’s not helpful! You’re scaring him.”  Andrew doesn’t recognize this forceful, confident Gil. When did he get like this? If he’s been like this all along why has he always avoided everybody?

Uncle Patrick bustles forward. “He meant no harm or offense. My nephew is a good lad.”

“None taken. Gil says he’s something of a friend, and nobody but Gil had actually _seen_ me and survived for decades, so no one could tell you if I were real or not.”

Andrew is stunned. Gil told The Guardian that he, Andrew! Is a friend.Something of a friend, anyway. Still! He wasn’t sure Gil even knew his name.

Uncle Patrick looks startled and the crowd murmurs in surprise.

Gil speaks up. “That’s not all that comforting, either, Oz.”

“Am I that scary? Nobody needed to see me, so they didn’t.” He looks around at the crowd and points to Eustace, and a couple others. “I saw you, though,” he added thoughtfully.

 

* * *

This is fun. He’d been alone so long he’d forgotten what it was like to mess with people’s heads. He remembers now though. It’s _fun_. Even the faces Gil makes in frustration are amusing, and he realizes he’s still kinda giddy over having his Gil finally remember him,  after so long. He might be immortal, but it’s still hard. At least his desperate move with the contract had worked. He could find his Gil. That is enough. His servant is his property, and his family, and these people were hard on what belonged to Oz. So he will enjoy messing with them no matter how much Gil sighs. But he’d gone overboard when he explained how long he had known Gil. That made Gil need to ask about what he’d meant, and he knows that someday Gil will want to know what happened in those three lives. And Oz will have to tell him. But for now, they need to find Gil’s sister Alice, and then… who knows.

He stands. “Gil, we’re leaving.”

Gil jumps. “Oz what—?”

Just like before. Gil has an essential Gil-ishness, and that sort of thing is part of it. Oh, the memories that brings up. Clearly he needs to get Gil used to it. Gil needs practice not jumping, so Oz will give him practice.

“We need to find your sister, don’t we?” He says, and realization dawns in Gils eyes. They’d talked about this during the week between Gil getting his memory back and now, and Oz wants to see Gil’s sister, Alice, who names her cats Dinah, Snowdrop, and Butterball, and who knew Gil should be named Gil. He’s noticed in his wandering, that certain groups of people have similarities to other groups he knew, and tend to come together over again.

He’s never managed to forget finding Elliot as noblewoman served by a maid with violet eyes flecked with gold. Leo had been very frustrated. Oz had been relieved to find someone else who remembered, and traumatized by Elliot-the-woman. That was so _wrong_. Leo thought so too.

But since those who belong together seem to come together, he finds Gil’s sister’s resemblance to Ada, suspicious. He needs to see that she’s safe, and so does Gil. 

As Gil asks for supplies, Oz watches the crowd, and finally announces, “I’m leaving with him. Don’t leave anything in my forest anymore. Hunting is allowed, but only as much as you already did. Do _not_ dig near any holes, or you’ll fall in caves. And no building in the forest. I’ll probably come back someday, and I want my territory the same as I left it.” He pauses, “and someone write to Alice and tell her we’re alive and coming.” In case something got in their way. Like Pandora people deciding that they had to attack the B-rabbit who would destroy things if left unchecked. Never mind that he saved the world, or that he wasn’t like other chains, and didn’t need a contract to exist in the world, but their reaction to him was to think he was his contractor and try to catch or kill him to banish B-rabbit back to the Abyss, and since he used his power to save Gil they will have felt it and begun to hunt him. He’s pleased that no one connected the legend of a rabbit guardian to him, or found him after he used his power a year ago.

“And tell no one who came from outside that I’m real,” he adds.

 

* * *

As the only home he’d known in this life fades into the sea of trees behind them, Gil feels light.

“Gil, are you still a Baskerville?” Oz asks abruptly.

Vincent is running ahead, exploring, and acting younger than Gil remembers him ever acting, even when he was that age last time. It’s strange and nice.

“I don’t know,” he answers, thinking hard. Had he healed like he had last time? If he did then he should still be Baskerville. “Why?”

“I want a contract. But I won’t turn you into an illegal contractor. So? Are you?”

He remembers that he still healed kind of fast, but those were all minor cuts and bruises anyway. but… he had no scars. Not from the time he caught a fishhook in his thumb and it was stuck there for two days, or from the deep scratches Dinah and Snowdrop left in his arms. So… maybe.

“I might be. But I think we’ll have to wait and see.” 

 

* * *

 

So they traveled. They got into a few interesting adventures before they made it to Alice, and when they found her realized that she was once Ada, and their uncle had been Oscar. They heard familiar music and tracked it to a pair of pianists, one of whom was loud and brash, and the other went by Leo again, and greeted Oz and Gil with relief. They tangled with Pandora, and set up a deal to ensure they were left alone, and they found three daughters of a noble family, served by an odd but caring knight-in-training. 

And those were not, perhaps, the ones they expected.

Oh the eldest daughter had a fan and knew how to use it, and the youngest was unfamiliar to them, but the middle daughter took a perverse joy in disturbing others by crunching candy at odd moments, and often met the wrong end of her elder sister’s fan. Startlingly she was better with a sword than the knight, who loved meat, and still slept with a plush rabbit. Oz was not jealous. Not at all, really.

And it was there that they stayed, and Vincent developed feelings for the youngest daughter, and Gil fell out of a tree and broke his arm. When it healed within a week he was confirmed to be a Baskerville, and he and Oz remade their contract.

 

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**Author's Note:**

> so this is an AU after retrace 94, one where Alice doesn't come back, having instead gone into the reincarnation cycle. As a result Oz and Gil are left to save the world alone, and attack Glen directly instead of following him to Sablier.


End file.
